Marissa Erminio had a match-high 17 kills and 10 digs, and Cambria Wierman added 13 kills and 20 digs to help the Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team hand Shippensburg University its first PSAC loss and climb to within one game of first place in the Central Division with a four-set win, Friday night in Shippensburg.
 
The Mountain Cats made it four straight wins and improved to 18-5 overall and 8-2 in the PSAC Central.
 
Pitt-Johnstown took the first two sets 25-20 and 25-16, before the Red Raiders held on for a 25-23 victory in the third set.  However, the Mountain Cats were able to pull away late and close out the match with a 25-18 four-set win.
 
After Gabriella Johnson's kill early in the opening set gave Shippensburg a slim two-point advantage, Pitt-Johnstown bounced back with a 12-5 run to take a five-point lead of its own.  Noelle Carota's kill put the Mountain Cats up by three, and Wierman's kill followed by a Red Raiders' attack error closed the run and put Pitt-Johnstown up 19-14.  Shippensburg was able to get it down to three on two occasions, but kills from Kendall Mahony and Noelle Carota wrapped-up the 25-20 win.
 
Pitt-Johnstown started the second set fast and coasted to a 25-16 victory.  Three kills to begin the set from Erminio and a Devan Orr service put the Mountain 7-4.  Shippensburg narrowed it to 13-11, but kills by Carota, Mahony, and Erminio got Pitt-Johnstown's lead out to seven and the Red Raiders were not able to recover.  Wierman's kill extended the lead to eight, and two straight Shippensburg errors finished the nine-point win.
 
Shippensburg used a block from Gabriella Johnson and Samantha Webber to climb out to a 3-point lead midway through the third set.  Pitt-Johnstown came back to tie it at 12, then again at 14, but the Red Raiders regained control and pushed its lead out to 22-17 on a Kendall Johnson block.  The Mountain Cats were able to fight off four straight Shippensburg set points, including getting a kill from Maura Brehl, to make it 24-23, but another Kendall Johnson block gave the Red Raiders the slim 25-23 win to extend the match to a fourth set.
 
In the fourth set, neither team was able to hold more than a two-point advantage until Pitt-Johnstown until a pair of Wierman kills gave the Mountain Cats a 17-12 lead.  Pitt-Johnstown never let the Red Raiders closer than three the rest of the way and took advantage of a Shippensburg error and another Carota kill to win the set, 25-18.
 
Along with Erminio and Wierman, Carota finished with nine kills, and Brehl had seven kills and six blocks for Pitt-Johnstown.  Mahony chipped-in six kills and five blocks, and Caitlin Vrabel had two kills and six blocks.
 
J.C. Longeville led the way with 24 set assists and 15 digs, and Allison Mondorff had 20 assists and 16 digs.  Devan Orr collected a match-high 24 digs for Pitt-Johnstown.
 
Shippensburg, which had its 10-match winning streak snapped, was led by Webber's 16 kills and four blocks and Gabriella Johnson's 10 kills and two blocks.
 
The Red Raiders slipped to 16-6 overall and 9-1 in the PSAC Central.
 
Pitt-Johnstown travels to a PSAC match at Millersville on, before returning home to host conference matches in the Sports Center against California (PA) on October 27 a 7 p.m. and Seton Hill on October 28 at 1 p.m.